Speaking with MTV News, Cumberbatch pulled the curtain back on his "Trek" role, but not at the expense of revealing the character's true purpose and motivation. "He's a terrorist; he operates as a terrorist," said the British actor. "He has extraordinary physical powers, but also mental powers. He can sow an idea, which is as powerful as gunshots or close-hand combat, which he's masterful in. He tears into the fabric of both the world and the Enterprise family, and he leaves behind him a trail of devastation. It's quite exciting to watch."

KPatrickGlover:Critch: It's not Khan. The villian in this is a former member of Starfleet with enhanced abilities, but Khan was never in Starfleet.

It's not Gary Mitchell. Mitchell had psychokinetic powers, not super strength. Mitchell was also killed off in the canon comic book in the second issue.

Garth of Izar is likely, or a new character.

Doesn't have to be a former member of Starfleet, just because he's wearing a Starfleet uniform. Look at Space Seed. Khan was wearing a Starfleet uniform after he was brought aboard.

Oooooo, I hadn't thunked of that. I hope it's Khan as the villain. Just wishful thinking on my part.

/What if Abrams just shot a trailer, loosed it upon fertile fanboy imagination, and is reading all our posts till one of us comes up with an idea that he just loves, and that's how the villain will be decided?

Speaking with MTV News, Cumberbatch pulled the curtain back on his "Trek" role, but not at the expense of revealing the character's true purpose and motivation. "He's a terrorist; he operates as a terrorist," said the British actor. "He has extraordinary physical powers, but also mental powers. He can sow an idea, which is as powerful as gunshots or close-hand combat, which he's masterful in. He tears into the fabric of both the world and the Enterprise family, and he leaves behind him a trail of devastation. It's quite exciting to watch."

BOOOM.... Not KHAN.

It is Gerry Mitchell 2.0.

It's Sybok; Spock's brother from Star Trek V.

1) "He has extraordinary physical powers..."Sybok is a Vulcan, which explains the strength, and the fighting prowess.

2) "...but also mental powers."From Wikipedia: "Sybok has a mental ability to reveal and repair the innermost pain of a person, and uses it to gain the trust of the hostages and most of Enterprise's crew."

3) "He tears into the fabric of both the world..."Sybock lost his homeworld, and the Federation must pay.

4) "...and the Enterprise family"In Star Trek V, even McCoy and Spock were influenced by Sybok's mental powers to the point where they commuted mutiny. With the help of the crew, Sybock took control of the Enterprise, which sort of covers Cumberbatch's "terrorist" talking point, and the tearing of the Enterprise family.

5) Watch the trailer again Link. This time take a really long look at the villain's ears at the 24 and 46 second mark. It's extremely subtle, but his ears look pointed, at least to me. The villain wears a hood through the rest of the trailer, but for about 4 seconds you can see his ears.

The first movie had a series of comic book tie-ins released that were canonical to this timeline. One of those included Gary Mitchell. Yep, he still gained his god-like powers, and yep he was still killed. Supposedly it took place before the events of the reboot. I'm not exactly sure because I'm not that geeky to have actually got this, but I've heard about it.

Comic book characters come back all the time. It seems to me that if everyone thinks he's dead, then him coming back for some kind of vengeance against the people who nearly got him killed/abandoned him is perfect movie villain logic.

Cumberbatch is probably playing Khan's right hand man, the guy he's yelling at in the picture up thread. I'll bet that it's not a redo of Wrath of Khan, just a redo of Space Seed. Perhaps Khan's ship is discovered and they're taken back to earth in custody of Starfleet, and Cumberbatch manages to escape somehow. Then he returns to rescue his "family", aka Khan and company. With Peter Weller probably playing Khan.

The same article also states that Roberto Orci included Gary Mitchell in a list of characters who would NOT be in the movie. So the producers are going out of their way to throw up smokescreens and encourage rabid speculation.